our windows build ships no browser: how a ~31 mb launcher gets free nvdec/quicksync 4k decode
Disclosure: I'm the developer of RKMovies, an ultra-lightweight 4K media player client for Android and Windows ( the landing page ). Every Electron app bundles its own Chromium, which is why "desktop video player" installers weigh 150-300 MB. We went the other way. Our Windows installer (~31 MB) is a PyInstaller bundle of the FastAPI backend plus a launcher. On startup it finds the real Chrome or…
The author of RKMovies, a lightweight 4K media player for Android and Windows, describes how their Windows installer is only 31 MB in size. Unlike most desktop video player installers that weigh between 150-300 MB due to bundling Chromium, RKMovies avoids this by using PyInstaller to create a bundle containing the FastAPI backend and a launcher.
The launcher searches for a real Chrome or Edge browser installed on the system via the registry and then spawns it with specific parameters. This results in a chromeless window that appears native, has its own taskbar icon, an isolated profile, and no bundled browser engine. This approach allows for 4K hardware decode using NVDEC (NVIDIA), QuickSync (Intel), and DXVA (AMD) capabilities already present in Chrome and Edge on Windows.
The author notes that trade-offs include the installer's dependence on a system browser and it being a local server plus a window, but they believe the benefits outweigh these drawbacks.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
